When considering budgetary amounts, the measure ‘Investments in physical assets’, accounting for nearly 60% of the budget allocated to Focus Area 3A across the EU, is by far the most important (see Figure 2). Support under this measure is usually provided in the form of grant aid schemes which help farmers and rural businesses to modernise and enhance their position within the food supply chain. It can be combined with ‘soft’ RDP measures such as ‘information and knowledge transfer’, ‘quality schemes’, or ‘advisory services’ so as to increase its effectiveness. The cooperation measure offers explicit support for ‘horizontal and vertical cooperation among supply chain actors for the establishment and development of short supply chains and local markets’, and for ‘promotion activities in a local context relating to the development of short supply chains and local markets’. Support is granted to new cooperation projects only, for a maximum period of seven years. For the programming period 2014-2020, the cooperation measure attracts 1.84% of all rural development public funding, and nearly 7% of the budget devoted to FA 3A. Despite being used by only 29 RDPs, the ‘Animal welfare’ measure attracts nearly 20% of the budget devoted to FA 3A. This seems to reflect the fact that many Member States’ managing authorities consider it important that the food supply chain is able to meet increasingly demanding consumer requirements in this field.
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